Today is the first day of 2025 — Hooray! In August of 2025, I’ll be retiring from my full-time job as a school librarian, so that will free up my time to do more with dolls and doll clothing designs. Watch for more news about my plans for 2025 in a later blog post in January.

With today’s blog post, I want to reflect on the patterns that have been most popular in 2025. It’s good to see what patterns are getting the most downloads, so I can offer more of those types of patterns in the years to come, as I enjoy the freedom of my retirement! 😊

Before we get going here, I need to make my required disclaimer statement: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how affiliate marketing works on my website, please go to the Privacy Policy page. Thank you!

Coming in at number 10, we have the “schoolgirl skirt” and felt top project, which I posted in April of 2020 under the title, “Free printable PDF patterns for teaching a child to sew (or for adults learning to sew),” and I believe it’s probably that title which draws people in.

This set is not only one of the easiest projects I offer on my website, but it’s also one of the most versatile, fitting a large number of dolls that range in size from 13 inches to 18 inches tall. (Please note, though, it doesn’t fit the 18 inch American Girl dolls.) The felt top is especially easy to learn to sew, since felt made from synthetic fibers is super flexible, and really, it only takes four stitches on the sewing machine to complete this sleeveless top.

In case you weren’t aware, one of the best ways to help promote my website is to pin images from my site into your own Pinterest boards. So if you haven’t been doing that, please start with today’s blog post! It helps my site grow, and when I gain followers, that helps me earn money to keep doing what I do.

The “schoolgirl skirt” and felt top project has been available on my website for four years, so it has more than a thousand pins on Pinterest. Thank you, to everyone who has pinned this project!

The ninth most popular pattern to download this year was my Elf on the Shelf turtleneck sweater and jeans pattern.

This one really took my by surprise! I knew there weren’t many patterns out there for Elf on the Shelf, but I had no idea when I did my Elf on the Shelf clothing series last Christmas that it would take off instantly and maintain its popularity through to the following holiday season.

The Elf on the Shelf turtleneck and jeans sewing pattern has been available on my website for a little over a year, having first appeared here on December 15, 2023, but in that short time, it garnered 196 pins on Pinterest, which is amazing! Way to go, Elf on the Shelf!

Next on the list, and eighth in the lineup, is my “baby doll halter dress and shorts or bloomers / nappy covers” pattern. This project has been available as a PDF since 2018, but its original blog post is much older (although that older post only offered the pattern in a JPG format).

I think of myself as a designer of fashion doll clothing, so when I look back over the most popular patterns of 2024, I’m making note of the fact that baby doll clothes make up almost a third of the ten most popular patterns on my website. I suppose I need to design more baby doll clothes!

This pattern is another one that’s highly versatile, fitting Wellie Wishers, American Girl (although you need to use a different shorts pattern for them), and many other dolls, in addition to the little 12-inch baby dolls. In the six years it has been available on my site, this baby doll halter dress and shorts or bloomers project has been pinned on Pinterest 521 times. Wow!

My baby doll romper takes seventh place. It’s super simple to make, being just a big-doll shorts pattern that has elasticized casings at the doll’s thighs and then an elasticized upper body area with decorative elastic for the romper’s straps.

All the elasticity and the stretch of the jersey fabric for this baby doll romper makes it easy for kids to take off and put on their baby dolls without any assistance from the adults around them. No wonder this is such a favorite of the baby doll sewists out there!

The baby doll romper project patterns and tutorial video have been available for free on my website since July 4th, 2019. It has more than 2000 pins on Pinterest! So heck yeah! I should definitely be posting more baby doll clothes patterns! LOL!

In sixth place is my baby doll “footie” pajamas.

Okay wait… earlier I said that three of my top ten patterns for 2024 are baby doll patterns. I was wrong. This is the fourth one. Holy smokes! Am I the only designer making free baby doll clothes patterns on the whole internet???

I’m only just realizing how popular these patterns are! Setting a new goal… MORE BABY DOLL PATTERNS IN 2025!

I need to be honest about this pattern. It’s not a true “footie” pajama for baby dolls. The footie bottoms are separate from the top.

But that makes it easy for kids to dress their baby dolls, and it makes it easy for the sewist to make them too, so no wonder these so-called “footie” pajama patterns for 12 inch baby dolls are number six on my top 10 list of the most popular free doll clothes patterns on my website in 2024.

This particular pattern was posted in January of 2021, and it has more than a thousand pins on Pinterest.

This next one was not a surprise to me. Coming in at number five is my summer outfit for Barbie dolls, and it includes a reversible tank top with an elastic-waist three-tier skirt.

Personally, I love this pattern, and I re-make it a lot. It’s timeless too, seeming never to go out of style. Once it has been made, it looks pretty on not just Barbie, but it fits a number of other fashion dolls as well. In fact the reversible tank top and three-tier skirt pattern set appears on quite a few gallery pages, on my website, being available for many different dolls in the 10 to 12 inch size range.

This project has been posted to Pinterest 716 times over the course of the past year and a half, and that’s just the Pinterest count on the Barbie gallery page. It doesn’t include the other galleries. So this one’s definitely a winner!

In fourth place is my basic party dress for Barbie. It has been a top ten on my YouTube channel for a long time, and the classic design of this dress pattern seems to draw people in like no other.

Personally, I remake this dress all the time too. Recently I remade it with a bonnet, and if you want to see that pattern, including the bonnet pattern, you should click here. I loved this “Red Hat Society” fabric, which was sort of the theme of this Barbie doll dress and hat ensemble (below).

The white one with multicolored polka dots is probably the most popular dress I’ve ever made, though, when I look at consistent popularity over a number of years, not just 2024. I think people really love the polka dot fabric.

I know I do! Currently I have a Dawn doll dress that I’m making with that same fabric, using a vintage pattern from the 1970’s. As I type this, the Dawn doll dress is sitting in my sewing room, waiting for me to get back on-task with it.

Anyhow, in 2024, the basic Barbie party dress project’s patterns were pinned on Pinterest 630 times! Hooray for fun little polka dots!

Silly as it may seem, my Elf on the Shelf bathrobe with pajamas comes in at number three on my top ten list. I suppose people like it because kids can put their Elf on the Shelf to bed on Christmas Eve.

The title of the blog post for this Elf on the Shelf pajama pattern is “Give your Elf on the Shelf the ultimate pampering experience with today’s free sewing patterns!” and I suspect this clever title grabs the attention of readers who are surfing the internet for Elf on the Shelf doll clothes sewing patterns.

Still, I’m pretty surprised by the obvious popularity of my Elf on the Shelf patterns. Maybe next December I’ll have Elf on the Shelf re-appear a few more times, to help satisfy people’s desire for Elf on the Shelf sewing projects.

The Elf on the Shelf pajamas and robe patterns and photos have been pinned on Pinterest 495 times!

Again, this one doesn’t surprise me at all. My American Girl/18 inch doll nightgown pattern is the #2 most popular pattern of 2024, and I won’t be surprised if it continues to be popular in 2025 as well.

A doll clothing designer can’t go wrong with 18 inch doll clothes patterns! I think a lot of people would like me to design more outfits for the 18 inch dolls, and in fact, I have a few of them up my sleeve for the coming year. So if you enjoy sewing doll clothes for American Girl and other 18 inch dolls, you might want to subscribe to my newsletter or YouTube channel to get notifications about those patterns when I post them.

Unfortunately, there are only 12 pins on Pinterest, for this particular project. So if you’re reading this, please navigate over to my 18 inch doll pajama page and pin a few photos to your Pinterest pages please! It really helps me grow my audience (and keep my business running) if you do!

Drumroll… 🥁 And the number ONE doll clothes sewing pattern for 2024 IS… my basic baby doll dress with diaper pattern for a 12 inch baby doll!

Yes, this is one of four baby doll patterns that are in the top 10 this year, for the number of free patterns downloaded from my website.

I’ve had people request that I make patterns for Baby Alive 12 inch dolls. Maybe I should get busy designing some of those!

What patterns on my website are your favorites? Please leave a description of them in the comments. Let me know which patterns you come back to re-make, and why they are your favorites.

And happy sewing in the New Year, 2025!

If you enjoyed this blog post, and you’d like to see my videos, you might want to navigate over to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1 to look through my playlists.

If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.

For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.

For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.

Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.